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The parliamentary minority has deplored what it calls unfair treatment of teachers.
They said the licensure exam should be part of their curriculum at school.
They argue that forcing a qualified teacher to pass another exam before getting his license and one year of compulsory national service affects them negatively.
In a statement signed by education ranking member Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, the parliamentary group noted that Article 12 (4) of the 2008 Education Law (Law 778) on which the NPP government was held to introduce the licensing exams was wrongly interpreted.
“So this means that the law did not provide for a separate examination to be conducted on the teacher after he has completed a program of study at the College of Education or at an accredited university to offer training programs. teachers, “the statement read. noted.
In empathy with the teachers, the minority group called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to urgently suspend the holding of any further teacher license exams.
Instead, the NDC group is calling for a review of the teacher education curriculum to make licensing exams an integral part of the course curriculum as credit hours to be acquired by students towards their certification.
In addition, the minority noted that “the automatic recruitment of teachers at the end of their studies should be reinstated so that teachers do not stay at home unemployed and become an economic burden for their parents”.
Below is the full minority statement in Parliament:
MINORITY POSITION ON MASSIVE FAILURE OF CANDIDATES IN RECENTLY ORGANIZED TEACHER LICENSE EXAMINATIONS AND THE WAY FORWARD.
Minority attention (NDC) in parliament has been drawn to a massive failure of candidates who sat for the recently organized teacher’s license exam.
The National Board of Education (NTC), an agency under the Ministry of Education, introduced the teaching license exam in 2018 to authorize teachers who teach or wish to teach in public pre-college schools. from the country. According to the Ministry of Education, this is a fulfillment of Article 12 (4) of the Education Law of 2008 (Law 778) which states that:
“The curriculum for pre-higher education teachers leading to a teaching license is developed in consultation with the Council”.
This therefore means that the law did not provide for a separate examination to be carried out on the teacher after he or she has completed a program of study at the College of Education or at an accredited university to offer programs of teacher training.
Over the past three years, the minority have observed with concern the unfair treatment of these young, qualified teachers who have dedicated themselves to serving the nation in a capacity that many have chosen to avoid.
The introduction of the licensing exam had a negative impact on the trainee teacher. Until 2017, a teacher who had completed teacher training at an education college was immediately assigned to begin his career as a professional teacher. When taking up the post, the first day counts for the teacher’s professional progression.
It is also established that since 2017, newly trained teachers have been forced to perform compulsory one-year national service.
Until now, the first year of engagement served as a probationary period, which also counted in the teacher’s progress. What happens now is that the newly trained teacher after the completion of his program of study has to perform a one-year national service, which does not count towards his first promotion. What is most unfair is that after the end of national service, employment is not automatic. These publicly-trained teachers have to stay home for another year before being hired, while classrooms remain without teachers across the country. Indeed, teachers lose two years, which will not count for their promotion.
What is frustrating is that after student teachers have gone through a three-year program, now four years and they have to get a certain number of credits to become a teacher, an aptitude test or a qualification exam. six hours is performed to determine their professional competence. . The question that arises is whether a six-hour exam can correct or correct teacher shortcomings or inefficiencies that a three-year curriculum could not correct.
It is therefore clear that the licensing exam in its current form is retrograde and cannot bring out the best in the newly trained teacher.
It is a demotivating and demoralizing attempt to frustrate the teacher before he takes office.
THE PATH TO FOLLOW
The minority, as already indicated, is not satisfied with the mistreatment of these young men and women and wishes to sympathize with them. We feel their pains and wish to assure them that we are with them in spirit and that the end of all this unfair treatment will come soon.
The minority position is that the Ministry of Education and the Ghanaian Education Service should urgently suspend the holding of any further teacher license exams and instead review the teacher training program and do more. license an integral part of the course program. in the form of credit hours to be earned by students towards their certification.
In addition, the automatic recruitment of teachers at the end of their studies should be reinstated so that teachers do not stay at home unemployed and become an economic burden for their parents.
As a minority, we want to assure all student teachers that we are with them in their struggle and want to reassure them that an NDC government taking office on January 7, 2025 will regard one-year off-campus education as a period of national service while making the licensing exam part of the hour credits they must earn during their studies to obtain their teaching diploma. These, we believe that the minority can motivate teachers to give the best of themselves.
We have seen that this government does not have the well-being of teachers at heart. Otherwise, the President of the Republic would not have recently declared that the teaching profession was not that of those who wanted to be millionaires.
What also broke the camel’s back was when the National Union of Students of Ghana met with the president to express his displeasure at the candidates’ massive failure when he failed to sympathize with them but to agree with the Minister of Education that his assessment was the most accurate. He did not encourage them and made no commitment to ensure a better licensing regime.
As a minority, we want to encourage them to cheer themselves up and hope for the best for the future.
Peter Nortsu Kotoe
Ranking Member on Education
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